VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHUNV #0327/01 1900956
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 090956Z JUL 09
FM USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9805
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME IMMEDIATE 0549
INFO RUEHII/VIENNA IAEA POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHVI/AMEMBASSY VIENNA 1451
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC 0013

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000327 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS USAID 
STATE FOR IO/T, ISN/MNSA 
ROME FOR USFAO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: AORC KNNP IAEA ENRG TRGY EAID EAGR
SUBJECT:  IAEA: WHAT IS BEING DONE IN FOOD SECURITY 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (U) The IAEA has played an important if obscure role in securing 
the world's food supply for nearly fifty years.  Its projects have 
addressed a wide variety of agricultural concerns and provided 
innovative solutions using nuclear technology.  In partnership with 
FAO, the Vienna-based Joint Division has sought to improve the role 
of nuclear techniques "from farm to fork".  Nuclear techniques have 
improved crops, helped farmers plant more efficiently, and 
eliminated deadly insect pests.  These programs have had a tangible 
impact on agriculture in many nations.  The decades-old partnership 
was recently fully reinstated after a failed attempt by Member 
States in Rome to save money by canceling the Joint Division. 
Thanks to stalwart support from the G-77, the Joint Division 
survived and its leadership has taken steps to win back the good 
graces of its more skeptical supporters (which include the U.S.). 
Mission suggests that USAID and USDA/FAS consider closer cooperation 
with the IAEA/FAO Joint Division in order to strengthen its 
relevance and increase the impact of its work using nuclear 
techniques for agricultural development. 
 
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WHO DOES IT? 
------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Food security at the IAEA is managed by the Joint FAO/IAEA 
Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture (NAFA), a 
joint venture by the IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and 
Applications and FAO Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department. 
 The Division is comprised of five research sections:  (1) Animal 
production and health; (2) Soil and water management and crop 
nutrition; (3) Plant breeding and genetics; (4) Insect pest control; 
and, (5) Food and environmental protection.  Laboratory work is 
performed at the FAO/IAEA Agriculture and Biotechnology Laboratory 
in Seibersdorf, Austria.  The division employs seventy-one IAEA 
staffers and twenty-four FAO staffers.  The 21-24 million Euro 
budget provides funding for approximately 50 training courses, 40 
applied research projects, and nearly 250 technical cooperation 
projects each year. 
 
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STRONGER CROPS 
-------------- 
 
¶3.  (U) The Joint Division focuses heavily on research related to 
the use of radiation to accelerate mutations, a natural phenomenon, 
in crops.  The Joint Division has identified mutations which 
increase plant yield, shorten the cultivation period, increase 
disease resistance, and allow plants to survive in hostile 
environments.  The Joint Division has used such breakthroughs to 
implement IAEA Technical Cooperation (TC) projects focused on 
improving rice, banana, and sorghum harvests using bio-fortified 
strains.  There are approximately fifty active TC projects in Plant 
Breeding and Genetics.  According to TC experts, projects in this 
area provide billions of dollars per year in additional income for 
farmers.  Aside from the TC projects, a NAFA sub-program trains 
approximately one hundred scientists and hosts over thirty interns 
and fellows per year from mostly developing countries on nuclear 
techniques. 
 
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SOIL AND WATER 
-------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) IAEA scientists also use nuclear techniques to monitor 
relevant soil properties, allowing optimal land use by farmers.  For 
instance, radioisotopes permit the Agency to track the movement of 
both pollutants and nutrients within the soil over time.  Accurate 
mapping of these elements has greatly increased land use efficiency 
and prevented soil degradation in a number of developing countries. 
The NAFA soil and water management and crop nutrition sub-program 
works to also improve agricultural water use through accurate 
measurements of soil moisture levels.  The IAEA has found that the 
impact of even a small improvement in water use is quite large 
because approximately seventy-five percent of global fresh water is 
used by agriculture.  One of the direct results that the IAEA cites 
in this area is a global savings of 6 billion USD in fertilizer use 
per annum. 
 
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PROTECTING 
---------- 
¶5.  (U) Sterile insect technique (SIT) has been used by the IAEA to 
help countries eliminate insect pests for over forty years.  Flies 
and moths destroy crops and can infect humans and livestock with 
potentially fatal diseases such as trypanosomosis.  SIT eliminates 
insect populations by overwhelming the wild female insects with 
farm-raised, radiation-sterilized males.  Fly-free zones have been 
certified in many parts of South and Central America as well as the 
Arava Valley in the Middle East and the Hex River Valley in South 
Africa, permitting produce grown in those areas to avoid quarantine 
measures.  Internationally recognized fly-free zones are estimated 
to have yielded billions of dollars in economic benefits for 
farmers.  There are currently 49 active TC projects involving SIT in 
all four major TC regions.  Researchers are applying their 
experience eradicating Tsetse on Zanzibar to nations on mainland 
Africa.  Current projects assist countries like Ethiopia, which has 
lost 15% of its arable lowlands to Tsetse infestation.  At the 
recent IAEA Future of the Agency meeting on TC (June 29-20, 2009), a 
few member states suggested that the SIT could be spun-off into the 
private sector, since the techniques are widely available and are 
already used commercially.  The U.S. along with others continues to 
support the SIT program. 
 
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STILL RELEVANT? 
--------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Despite these unequivocal achievements, questions remain 
about the Joint Division's enduring relevancy.  Many of the Joint 
Division's technology and techniques that were cutting edge two or 
three decades ago have since become widely available.  In some 
cases, the Joint Division has had difficulty withdrawing from 
programs where it no longer provides added value.  (A UK diplomat 
recently cited the tse-tse fly program as one that should be scaled 
back for this very reason.) 
 
¶7.  (U) The Seibersdorf Lab also comes under regular scrutiny by 
observers who wonder if the wide range of activities performed there 
might not be better carried out in regional labs or canceled 
altogether.  As a Canadian diplomat recently asked, "Why are they 
experimenting with banana groves in Austria?  Shouldn't they be 
doing that in Ghana?" 
 
¶8.  (U) On the other hand, a former U.S. Agricultural Attache 
defends the Joint Division as an important market "catalyst."  Its 
activities lead to the development, marketing and distribution of 
products in places that wouldn't normally get attention.  For 
example, the Joint Division recently collaborated with the 
U.S.-based company Smiths Detection to develop a portable test kit 
for avian influenza.  Smiths Detection developed the technology 
while the Joint Division provided the funding and international 
contacts.  (The H5N1 strain is considered a significant pandemic 
threat, and the poorest countries are the ones least able to manage 
disease control.  Projects like this one support arguments in favor 
of the Joint Division's relevancy.) 
 
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CLOSE CALL 
---------- 
 
¶9.  (U) In 2008, a group of FAO Member States in Rome (including the 
U.S.) proposed canceling the Joint Division as one of many cutbacks 
in the struggling FAO's budget.  In these days of virtual 
communication, there were questions about the value of placing FAO 
employees (from Rome) at the Joint Division in Vienna.  Also, by UN 
standards, the FAO is traditionally a "resource poor" organization 
compared to the IAEA, and even the FAO's token, 20 percent 
contribution to the Joint Division did not necessarily make fiscal 
sense (the IAEA picks up the remaining 80 percent). In the end, 
however, G-77 support for the Joint Division remains stalwart, 
effectively squashing the effort to reduce or radically alter the 
partnership. Indeed, the debate over survival of the Joint Division 
became a litmus test for the many developing countries that complain 
of U.S. and developed country efforts to play up the IAEA's "watch 
dog" status at the expense of its promotional role. 
 
¶10.  (U) Referring back to the struggle, IAEA Deputy Director 
General David Waller asserted that the Joint Division was a victim 
of poor public relations.  Last year's attempt to downgrade the 
relationship was, in Waller's view, born of ignorance about the 
Joint Division's true contributions.  Over the past year, IAEA 
Deputy Director General Werner Burkhart has gone out of his way to 
win back the good graces of Member States in both Rome and Vienna. 
He has traveled to Rome periodically for discussions on IAEA and has 
proposed a strategic review to determine "core" work as opposed to 
work that is sufficiently mature and could be opened up to 
extrabudgetary support.  In Vienna, glossy pamphlets have appeared 
that tout the accomplishments of the Joint Division.  In the 
aftermath of the struggle, UNVIE remains a "skeptical supporter" of 
the Joint Division's work, recognizing this as part of the overall 
bargain that makes the IAEA's enforcement/verification role 
stronger. 
 
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POTENTIAL PARTNERSHIP 
--------------------- 
 
¶11.  (U) Given that many of the Joint Division's projects have a 
direct impact on development, USAID and USDA/FAS may wish to 
consider potential partnership/synergies with the program.  USAID 
and USDA's more visible involvement would also promote the 
continuing relevance of the Division's work and, ultimately, enhance 
its impact on agricultural development.  The Division's work aligns 
closely with goals enumerated in the 2004 USAID Agricultural 
strategy, which include "expand public and private sector 
partnerships and networks to facilitate collaboration on applied 
research activities" and "support the development and application of 
environmental assessment technologies".  Through its joint FY 
2004-09 Strategic Plan with USAID, the Department also declares that 
"we will promote the adoption in low-income countries of new 
technologies deriving from agricultural research and development by 
mobilizing science and technology from developed as well as 
developing countries."  A closer partnership on a global, country, 
or TC project specific level could serve to advance USG interests in 
food security as well as sustainable development.  Mission would 
welcome further consultation with USAID and USDA on the work of the 
FAO/IAEA Joint Division. 
 
 
 
PYATT